Law curbing program set to take effect

A federal appeals agreed with the National Security Administration that it can continue its telephone surveillance program aimed at fighting terrorism.

Photo: Patrick Semansky / Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency can continue to collect the phone records of millions of Americans under a ruling Friday by the U.S. appeals court here, but it may do so only for three more months because of a new law.

The ruling is a symbolic win for the Obama administration and its national security team, but it’s largely moot since Congress voted this summer to phase out the controversial surveillance program.

Two years ago, a federal judge in Washington declared the once-secret surveillance program unconstitutional and issued an injunction against it. But the judge stayed his injunction pending an appeal.

In Friday’s 3-0 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington set aside the district judge’s early ruling and agreed with the NSA that it can continue to collect the bulk data.

But that policy will end in late November, thanks to a bipartisan compromise written into law in June. Libertarian Republicans and liberal Democrats agreed that the government did not need to collect and store the phone records to thwart terrorist plots.

Lawmakers, including key Republicans, said they never intended to authorize such mass data collection when they adopted the USA Patriot Act in 2001.

Under the new law, NSA agents tracking suspected terrorists may seek the dialing records held by a phone company, but they will need the approval of a special court.

The new USA Freedom Act says the agency does not have the legal authority to demand the phone companies turn over all of their records to be held by the government.

The NSA was given 180 days in all to adapt to the new restrictions. The shift cut off a series of lawsuits challenging the mass phone collection as unconstitutional.